Real estate software solutions provider MRI Software announced that it is acquiring Leverton, a market-leading lease abstraction solution for real estate and corporate documents that is powered by artificial intelligence (AI). 

Leverton uses proprietary optical character recognition technology and deep learning algorithms to extract thousands of data points from up to 25 languages. The data can be mined from lease, legal, and other corporate documents – even non-standard ones – giving companies a quick and accurate abstract of their real estate portfolios. The extracted data can then be used by companies for further analysis that can help with negotiations, cutting admin costs, and new revenue opportunities.

According to an article in Business Wire, Leverton’s Software as a Service solution has more than 5,000 users globally and has processed around 500,000 documents to date.

With this acquisition, MRI will be able to add to its extensive portfolio an automated lease abstraction tool as well as expertise in AI that can be leveraged for data collection, management, and analytics in the real estate space. It is expected that MRI will eventually incorporate Leverton’s tool into its own ecosystem so as to offer a more seamless data management experience for its clients. Leverton will become a separate business unit within MRI.

Leverton also benefits from this relationship. The backing of a major player in the real estate software industry gives Leverton access to the significant funding needed to scale up quickly. In addition, it will be able to capitalize on MRI’s global reach and considerable data resources, which will further improve the tool’s natural language processing features.

Such consolidation appears to be the logical step for many AI start-ups, especially where funding is concerned. In 2017, RAVN, an AI-powered tool used to extract data from legal documents, was acquired by iManage. More recently, in December 2018, legal AI company eBrevia was acquired by Donnelley Financial Solutions (DFIN). These deals highlight the potential of AI in real estate and other industries, and will hasten its adoption across a variety of services. 

Cenza is a leading provider of lease abstraction solutions, as part of its suite of lease admin services, to real estate companies. In keeping up with the latest technology developments in this sector, Cenza also helps companies better integrate AI into their processes.